9800 pro is it worth it?

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: ketchup79
I hate buying video cards. Well, I don't really hate it, it's just that video cards depreciate and get outdated faster than any other part of a computer, and it gets quite expensive. Why can't they just come out with video cards when they are twice as fast as their predecessor?... Oh yeah, that's right, everybody is out to make a buck

They might get outdated faster than other parts of your machine, but constant cards coming out seems to drive the price down faster than other components. I like to upgrade when I can get stuff that's about twice as powerful as my current hardware. For video cards that seems to be about once every couple of years or so.

 

[JackBurton]

Marketing hype is there for a reason. If it didn't work, they wouldn't use it.

WTF? If you have a 10Mbps NIC connected to your 1.5Mbps DSL connection, you'd have a total of 1.5Mbps throughput to the internet. If you then replaced your 10Mbps NIC with a gigabit NIC, is your throughput going to increase? If you don't know the answer, it is NO. You'll still only have a connection of 1.5Mbps max throughput (to the internet). Same with AGP speed. If it isn't maxed out (4X AGP), you won't need 8X AGP. In the future it might be needed, but not now or even the next generation of cards. If having 8X AGP on your motherboad makes you feel better, then have at it.

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Marketing hype is there for a reason. If it didn't work, they wouldn't use it.

WTF? If you have a 10Mbps NIC connected to your 1.5Mbps DSL connection, you'd have a total of 1.5Mbps throughput to the internet. If you then replaced your 10Mbps NIC with a gigabit NIC, is your throughput going to increase? If you don't know the answer, it is NO. You'll still only have a connection of 1.5Mbps max throughput (to the internet). Same with AGP speed. If it isn't maxed out (4X AGP), you won't need 8X AGP. In the future it might be needed, but not now or even the next generation of cards. If having 8X AGP on your motherboad makes you feel better, then have at it.

Marketing hype is there for a reason. If it didn't work, they wouldn't use it.

 

[JackBurton]

Ah, I misinterpreted ketchup79. I thought he was saying if AGP 8X didn't work, they would be marketing it as the next big thing. My mistake.

 

[Ophir]

I didn't know I would get such a response.

As I stated before, I know well the mythology behind the spec. nomenclature and I know that very few games (if any) need more than 1GB/s; however, my point was that a 9800 on that system would be a waste of cash, especially when upgrading from a Ti4600. I am a big proponent of balance in a system and I believe that best balance would be achieve by either:

1) putting the $400 into purchasing a new mobo, processor, and RAM (and still have money left over)

2) putting the $400 into the bank until his next future upgrade (which looks like sept. to oct. of the year for the Hammer - at which point the 9800 will probably be at least 10-20% cheaper). At max settings, I believe the system itself would be more of a bottleneck than the videocard (which is still very good).

While the AGP 4X 1GB/s bandwidth may not be exceeded in most gaming situations (if ever), I don't see how you could rationalize paring a 9800 with a A7V266 board, or any rig which doesn't support AGP8X (regardless of whether the spec means anything or not). That is just not going to be a balanced system. For a new rig of such specs a better idea would be to buy a Ti4200 or 9500pro (and OC) and save the $250-$300; for a rig with such specs and a 4600 already installed, it would be a better idea to save the money or upgrade the rest of the system.

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edit: for typos

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Ophir

Originally posted by: RaiderJ

Originally posted by: Megatomic

Originally posted by: bacillus

Something about running a 9800 at AGP 4X makes me uncomfortable.

why, you'll see very little real world difference between AGP x4 & x8!

I might be inclined to believe that while many high powered systems out there will see little difference between AGP4X and AGP8X, most systems based on motherboards that only support AGP4X probably don't warrant such a powerful card as the 9800 Pro or the 9700 Pro anyways.

Of course there are going to be exceptions for the latest motherboards that came with AGP4X, but think about putting a Radeon 9800 Pro into a system with a Via 694T and a PIII 1GHz. The Radeon 9800 Pro is going to starve in that situation. Unlike the 9800 Pro being paired with a P4 2.53GHz on a 845PE motherboard.

Quite a few AMD boards with only 4x AGP support can benefit from a 9x00 video card. I have an Abit kx7-333R, and it does great. AGP 8x is more of a moniker than anything, with newer boards having such large amounts of RAM onboard.

Yes, I am fully aware of the mythology behind these monikers (e.g. ATA/133, AGP 8X, etc.) and marginal gains in real world applications, but for some reason it would still make me uncomfortable. To me, it's kinda like putting run of the mill pep-boys H-rated tires on a ferrari. It real world applications (city driving, legal driving, basically anything not on a track, autobahn, or cote d'azure) one will notice very little difference, but it's just not right. A 9800 over a 4600 on a A7V266e board IMO is not a worthwhile purchase.

Your analogy isn't a very good one... a better analogy would be putting a 9800 Pro on a motherboard that only supports 4X AGP is the same as putting racing slicks on a Ford Focus... you'll notice a difference, but not as much as if you put a set of slicks on a Corvette and went racing.

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: Ophir
I didn't know I would get such a response.

As I stated before, I know well the mythology behind the spec. nomenclature and I know that very few games (if any) need more than 1GB/s; however, my point was that a 9800 on that system would be a waste of cash, especially when upgrading from a Ti4600. I am a big proponent of balance in a system and I believe that best balance would be achieve by either:

1) putting the $400 into purchasing a new mobo, processor, and RAM (and still have money left over)

2) putting the $400 into the bank until his next future upgrade (which looks like sept. to oct. of the year for the Hammer - at which point the 9800 will probably be at least 10-20% cheaper). At max settings, I believe the system itself would be more of a bottleneck than the videocard (which is still very good).

While the AGP 4X 1GB/s bandwidth may not be exceeded in most gaming situations (if ever), I don't see how you could rationalize paring a 9800 with a A7V266 board, or any rig which doesn't support AGP8X (regardless of whether the spec means anything or not). That is just not going to be a balanced system. For a new rig of such specs a better idea would be to buy a Ti4200 or 9500pro (and OC) and save the $250-$300; for a rig with such specs and a 4600 already installed, it would be a better idea to save the money or upgrade the rest of the system.

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edit: for typos

I would agree with that, but only because the 9800 isn't really worth the price premium. The AGP standard of the board has nothing to do with it.

 

[Ophir]

Jeff7181:
Your analogy isn't a very good one... a better analogy would be putting a 9800 Pro on a motherboard that only supports 4X AGP is the same as putting racing slicks on a Ford Focus... you'll notice a difference, but not as much as if you put a set of slicks on a Corvette and went racing.

True, but the the basic idea is the same. You're not achieving any sort of balance there - especially when the video card is worth more than the rig.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: rhino19
9800 pro is it worth it?

As an upgrade over your current Ti4600, sure. But then so is the 9700Pro for about half the price.

If you are looking for the current fastest card to run at high res on your 21 incher with AF/AA enabled, the 9700/9800 pro will be the current best choice with you needing to decide if the extra $150-200 is worth the difference for the 9800's extra performance.

And you might think of waiting a couple of weeks as the NV35 should be a monster. If so, you can buy the nVidia card for $400 or the (then) deeply discounted 9800Pro . . . if not, you only "lost" a few weeks of waiting and will still have a real choice.




And it also depends if money is burning a hole in your pocket . . . if so, it's worth it now.

 

[Jeff7181]

I woudl think a processor upgrade right now would be smarter than the video card. Grab an XP2500 Barton core for around $130... the average overclock for those is about 2.2 Ghz. if you can get it to 2.3 like a lot of people here have, you should almost be hitting a CPU score of 7000 in PCMark2002

 

[Harabecw]

In 2 days I'll be switching from my GF4 4200 to a radeon 9700, mostly to be able to play with AA+AF(dog I love AF) on in every game.

GF4s are speedy...until you crank up the quality can't even play freelancer with more than Quincunx+AFx2 at playable fram rates.